‘The Walking Dead’ season concludes Sunday

by Bradley Hartsell

On Sunday night, season four of AMC’s hit show “The Walking Dead” wraps up with its season finale.

Cable’s most popular show – with scenes filmed in Coweta County – continued the momentum last week with 13.5 million viewers, the top show for all of Sunday-night programming, including the NCAA college basketball tournament.

In October, the show shut down First Avenue in Newnan for a day while filming. In recent episodes, scenes from that day of shooting have appeared, with the show’s characters walking along the railroad tracks and the brick buildings across from First Avenue Park.

Despite the local filming, “Walking Dead” fever is not limited to this area. The zombie show has become the most popular cable television show in the country, per Nielsen ratings.

“I live in Senoia. We eat, breathe, and bite ‘Walking Dead,’” said Amy McCoy Dees. “This season has been an emotional roller coaster. As a writer, I know you must have an element of drama, [and] these folks rocked it.”

As for the highly anticipated finale, some fans are raising their expectations like Newnan’s Joshua Glen.

“This season has had, at times, slow progression and character development. So, it seems likely to have an exciting finale to shake things up and have people ‘dying’ for the next season.”

The show, based on the successful graphic novel of the same name, premiered on AMC on Halloween 2010, immediately becoming a smash hit. AMC in 2007 first dipped into original programming with the critically acclaimed “Mad Men,” followed by the also lauded “Breaking Bad” in 2008. With those shows succeeding, AMC took a chance on “The Walking Dead,” which immediately became a hit, even far surpassing the ratings of “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”

The season finale will be followed as usual by “Talking Dead,” a live talk show recapping the episode in which cast members and celebrities join host Chris Hardwick. Andrew Lincoln, the show’s lead who plays Rick, will be the guest following the finale.

Another season of the show has been ordered by AMC though the cable network has not confirmed the premiere date.